Not to be stealing Jeff's thunder, but I'm not sure I would put enough tension on those plastic lugs to get the heads tight. Those lugs are far too rare (IMHO) to risk the damage that may be caused by the tension. Jeff and I did discuss this some time back. I really don't know if he ever did, but at the time we had both come to the conclusion that it would be best to just finger tighten the tension rods to avoid damage.

Yes, I did say rare. Those drums ARE rare, and the lugs more so.

Everything I've found about the 'Educator' series indeed points to the very late seventies, and not very long after. Maybe into the very early eighties. Actually, I think the line didn't even last much more than a year, if that.

Jeff: Great! No hurry, whenever you have time to send the photos.

Again, congratulations. Those are indeed rare drums, and they are now complete. I'll ask Dana if he can get you a deal on some new bowties. If I had any spares, I'd send 'em to you...

Craig

Thank you Craig, I won an auction for 8 lugs and I should have 8 more coming from DFO member. And I think I have 8 more really crappy ones stored away that I was going to use for my Zebra snare. I would be interested in Dana's price on new ones also. I'm not real worried about playing the drums, I am so dang busy with cabinets I barely find time to play the ones I have set up. BUt I would like to play them eventually.

Tim, as Craig mentioned, I have not ever put a key on the rods due to the risk of breaking a lug. It would be my luck that the lugs are fine for 45 years and then one day I come along to tune the drums and break them.

These drums are really cool, I about fell out of my chair when I saw that snare drum. Thanks Craig for the motivation to buy the entire kit just to score the snare drum. When I saw the number was only two away from my floor tom I couldn't get over that either.

They are cool and have that very old vibe going appearance wise, like an old car that was never painted. They are like owning an Edsel, ( that is a car for you young bucks).

Some more ramblings about the 'Educator' line...

I find it interesting that Jeff has been able to find these extremely rare drums relatively effortlessly (not that he doesn't search for them). He's been fortunate enough to find two kits in exceptional condition...

Could it be his location, the northern mid west? I won't divulge Jeff's actual location other to say he's closer to Chicago than I am in California. However, I'm beginning to wonder just how far the dispersal of these kits were, if most were sold on the mid west, closer to Chicago.

Craig, I was thinking the same thing. These drums cant be rare, I have a room full of them,LOL

It was interesting to me that the serial numbers were so close on the snare and floor tom. I started a thread on DFO to see if anyone had heard of this line and one guy did chime in. I asked him for his serial numbers and this was the result.

My kit,

12"= 1389, 13"=5510, 16"=5638, 22"=5540

New kit,

12"=1361, 16"=5516, 22'=5605, snare drum=5636

other guys kit

Educators!!!!

16x22=#1348

16x16=#1335

9x13==#0810

9x12==#0806

I see a pattern with my drums, the two 12's are close to each other but far from the rest. The rest of the drums are all pretty close. But, the other guys kit numbers are way different.

So far, I know of only five guys with kits and one other member here has a snare drum. So maybe they are rare and they were only marketed in the mid west, and I just got plain ole lucky! But I wanted to share my luck, so soon a member might come forward and show off another kit.